Wellington  - German tourist Julia Jahn, 20, kept telling herself she was too young to die as she struggled for five hours to keep her head above water after her kayak became trapped on a New Zealand river, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

"I was thinking I want to survive. I'm still young. I don't want to die, so I had such a big will to live," Jahn, from Bavaria, told the Dominion Post as she talked about Friday's ill-fated kayak trip in the wilderness of the North Island's Whanganui River.

Berlin  - The historic Adriatic port of Trieste was an appropriate backdrop for Tuesday's meeting between Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, which was held as Rome prepares to head the Group of Eight (G8) leading industrial states.

Once a flourishing city lying at the intersection of pre-First World War political life, Trieste suffered a rather sharp decline in its fortunes following the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the shift in the international balance of power.

Trieste, Italy  - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Tuesday he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel favour a possible partnership between German airline Lufthansa and ailing Italian carrier Alitalia.

"We both view very favourably a collaboration between Alitalia and Lufthansa. In fact we hope it will occur," Berlusconi said during a joint news conference with Merkel in Trieste.

Earlier Tuesday Italy's top financial newspaper, Il Sole 24 Ore, reported that a private Italian consortium, CAI, which is in the process of purchasing the state's controlling stake in Alitalia, was on the verge of clinching a deal with French-Dutch airline Air France-KLM.

Munich - Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is to make a stopover in Munich, Germany, Thursday to meet with Bavarian Premier Horst Seehofer, German officials reported on Tuesday.

The visit is part of a European tour includes a speech to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Valencia, Spain on Tuesday. Saakashvili has been seeking European support in his ongoing struggle with Russia.

The meeting in Munich would be his first visit to Germany as Georgian president.

Berlin - Schalke midfielder Jermaine Jones has won a place in midfield for Germany against England in Berlin on Wednesday.

Jones, who missed out on the Germany squad for Euro 2008, gets his chance in defensive midfield after the omission of Torsten Frings.

It will be a first start for the 27-year-old son of a US serviceman who grew up in Frankfurt.

He was the only definite German starter named by team manager Oliver Bierhoff Tuesday for the friendly international.